March 22, 2011 - Garmin International, a global leader
in satellite navigation, and Kuerzi Avionics AG, an
industry leader in helicopter and aircraft services in
Europe, have teamed together to obtain European Aviation
Safety Agency (EASA) certification for the installation
of the Garmin G500H glass cockpit in the Eurocopter
AS350. With this STC, any authorized Garmin aviation
dealer can install a G500H in an AS350 in accordance
with EASA guidelines.

?Kuerzi
Avionics is very proud to have worked with Garmin to
achieve the first G500H EASA STC certification,? said
Ralf Kuerzi, Managing Director of Kuerzi Avionics. ?We
have selected the G500H as we consider it to be the
correct avionics solution to fulfil the requirements of
our current and future customers.?

?The G500H
is becoming a very popular avionics suite with the helicopter
community because of its vast capability and flexibility,? said
Gary Kelley, Garmin?s vice president of marketing. ?We are very
pleased to work with Kuerzi on this STC and we believe the G500H
is a great way to update AS350 helicopters so they can operate
at a whole new level.?

The G500H
is an all-glass avionics system designed specifically for the
VFR Part 27 helicopter market. The primary flight display (PFD)
shows attitude, airspeed, vertical speed, altitude and
course/heading information, and the multi-function display (MFD)
has detailed moving map graphics with the helicopter?s current
position in relation to terrain, chart data, navaids, and flight
plan routings.

The system
offers features like helicopter synthetic vision technology
(HSVT), XM WX Satellite Weather with NEXRAD, the ability to
display video from a forward looking infrared (FLIR) camera or
other video sources, and a helicopter-specific database with
over 7,000 heliports and nearly 30,000 additional low-altitude
obstacles in addition to the already extensive obstacle database
found in the fixed-wing G500 system.

The
Eurocopter AS350 Ecureuil (Squirrel) is a single engine
intermediate helicopter originally manufactured by A?rospatiale
(now part of Eurocopter Group). The AS350 is marketed in
North America as the AStar. The AS355 Ecureuil 2
(marketed in North America as the TwinStar.) is a twin engine variant,
while the Eurocopter EC130 is a derivative of the AS350
airframe.

The European
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is an agency of the European Union (EU),
which has the regulatory and executive tasks of civilian aviation safety
which was created in July 2002, and it reached full functionality in
2008, taking over functions of the JAA (Joint Aviation Authorities).
EFTA countries have been granted participation in the agency. The
agency?s responsibilities include:

? Giving
advice to the European Union for drafting new legislation?
Implementing and monitoring safety rules, including inspections in the
Member States? Type-certification of aircraft and components, as
well as the approval of organizations involved in the design,
manufacture and maintenance of aeronautical products? Authorization
of third-country (non EU) operators? Safety analysis and research.

As part of Single European Sky-II the agency have been
given more tasks. These will be implemented before 2013.
Amongst other things, EASA will now be able to certify
Functional Airspace Blocks if more than three parties
are involved.